]]>From social video community to robust media distribution platform with over 300 active titles, VHX has had an impressive journey over the past two years. On Monday, it took a new step towards the democratization of content distribution by opening the platform to anyone who has a video they want to sell directly to consumers.

VHX has officially been in public beta since September 2012, but the service is now fully open to users; features available to uploaders include the ability to send out coupons and screener copies of their work, plus control pricing and geoblocking.

The official dashboard offers transaction tracking and a list of previous customers who have subscribed to a project’s mailing list. In addition, VHX is lowering the rates it charges creators, now taking 10 percent (plus a $0.50 fee per transaction) instead of the previous cut of 15 percent. (The new pricing will apply retroactively — previous users will be migrated to it.)

Other developments in the works include better tools for audience building and community management (such as a newsletter creation feature), as well as a “video locker” that, in CEO Jamie Wilkinson’s words via phone, will “operate the way Ultraviolet is supposed to.”

While VHX was initially selective about the films it would distribute, Wilkinson said that he wasn’t concerned about any potential distillation of the brand.

“The big reason for limiting the films was that we wanted to have high level of customer service,” he said. “It was less about brand control and more about building a platform for a lot of use cases.” According to him, the VHX home page drives “relatively little traffic.”

But while it’s made a name for itself as a distributor of independent film, VHX is now exploring other potential genres.

“There’s a lot of areas of video that we haven’t gone really deep with,” Wilkinson said. “Lots of content that used to be sold on DVD could be sold online,” including lectures and tutorial series.

With the site now open to the public, it’s not as possible for the VHX team to take the hands-on approach they have in the past. However, according to Wilkinson, the years of beta-testing have helped them develop the tools necessary to make VHX scalable.

“That’s why we’ve been in public beta for so long — we’ve been dealing with customer support and payment structure,” he said. “We’ve built up a body of knowledge that we can share, with lots of great examples and case studies.” VHX currently has 16 employees, with two dedicated full-time to customer service and others chipping in occasionally.

]]>This week, the VHX website got a whole new look — instead of bringing users directly to its social video community, the home page now lays out VHX’s digital distribution services, first seen bringing Aziz Ansari and Indie Game: The Movie directly to consumers. This is no ordinary site redesign: This is VHX, distributor and disrupter, now open for business.

VHX is now taking submissions from anyone looking for premium independent distribution for their content, distribution over which they have full control: VHX releases are DRM-free and optimized across all platforms, including mobile, tablet and game consoles.

At this stage, the submission process boils down to “email VHX,” as the VHX team is focused on making sure that each release lives up to a certain level of quality. “We put the ‘Contact Us’ button front and center because it’s really about getting in touch with us,” co-founder Jamie Wilkinson said via phone. “Long-term, [VHX is] about the democratization of the video distribution process, but for right now we’re trying to make sure it’s high-quality content we’re putting out — working with selected filmmakers so we can give them the white glove treatment they need.”

If your content passes muster, partnering with VHX for distribution means being able to sell your content directly from your own site, with the VHX team providing direct assistance with SEO optimization, design, marketing and more.

While the profit split VHX takes with its clients is not yet public, Wilkinson did say that it’s a smaller cut than iTunes takes. “Plus, we’re very transparent about how much of that is what we make versus our expenses,” he added. “Whatever a traditional distributor does, we want to do exactly the opposite.”

This includes encouraging clients to use multiple distribution platforms, not just VHX. “The internet has completely changed expectations — it’s a customer service economy now,” Wilkinson said. “Everything has to be available everywhere.”

Wilkinson estimated the number of people who have reached out since VHX for Artists was first announced in the low hundreds. “The big challenge for us over the next 12 months is spreading awareness that we’re here. Because when people find out about us, they immediately get it,” he said.

VHX has partnered with Paypal and Amazon to handle the payment processes, a process that Wilkinson said was a bit difficult the first time, because of the amount of revenue they were taking in. Prior to the Aziz Ansari special launch, worried that as a new company getting a sudden influx of orders, Amazon might shut them down for suspicious behavior, they called Amazon to let them know in advance that they weren’t “Russian money launderers.”

Now, however, they now have a relationship with Amazon, as well as other vendors. “We only need to solve these problems once — then it works for all of our clients,” Wilkinson said.

Clients also receive live analytics on how their content is performing, including audience demographics — and because customers use their email addresses to set up an account, this means the creator has an opportunity to contact them down the line.

According to Wilkinson, 50 percent of the people who purchased Aziz Ansari – Dangerously Delicious opted into the Aziz Ansari newsletter — which meant Ansari had “tens of thousands, almost hundreds of thousands” of new subscribers (Wilkinson’s estimation) to whom he could then promote future projects.

For, while there is some pressure for the company to phase out the site’s video discovery component and focus entirely on distribution, Wilkinson said that there might be a way to combine both elements — especially as the community side might be able to serve as discovery for VHX’s paid content. “We fully intend to bring it all together,” he said.

Wilkinson said that between now and November, a half-dozen more projects from a variety of genres are set to roll out. “It’s all over the place — feature films, documentaries — things that you can’t super-put into buckets.”

Looking forward, VHX may also experiment with serialized or subscription content — by focusing on individual projects, the company is able to stay flexible how it approaches distribution. “So many of the other solutions out there have this cookie cutter approach, but we want to make sure that we give each release a unique strategy,” Wilkinson said. “We can adapt on the fly — if something doesn’t work, we can fix it.”

]]>https://gigaom.com/2012/09/16/vhx-for-artists-now-open-for-distribution-and-disruption/feed/4The incredible story of Indie Game: The Moviehttps://gigaom.com/2012/05/27/indie-game-itunes-vhx-kickstarter-steam/
https://gigaom.com/2012/05/27/indie-game-itunes-vhx-kickstarter-steam/#commentsSun, 27 May 2012 07:01:10 +0000http://gigaom.com/?p=526140Indie Game: The Movie will be available for sale via iTunes, VHX and gaming platform Steam.

Indie Game‘s story began on the web, thanks to Kickstarter funding, and covers a topic near and dear to the Internet’s heart: the rise of the independent video game designer.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhaT78i1x2M]

So while, according to co-director James Swirsky via email, the theatrical release and an earlier sold outscreening tour were profitable ways of building word-of-mouth about the film, making the film available online was extremely important to him and co-director Lisanne Pajot, as “that is where our audience is.”

“We wanted to get this film into the hands of those people who want to see it the most as quickly as reasonably possible,” he added. “Which is the main motivation behind the very tight release windows we’re working within.”

Indie Game‘s digital release will come through three platforms — one expected, two unconventional. The film, like many independent films before it, will be available on iTunes, but it’ll also be released by VHX as a direct DRM-free download — the second-ever project to be distributed by VHX, following their release of Aziz Ansari’s comedy special last April.

Check the date stamp on that tweet — it’s less than two weeks ago. Only nine days after making contact, Indie Game‘s deal with VHX was solidified. “A new record for us, and a trend we hope will continue,” VHX co-founder Jamie Wilkinson said via email.

There’s no exact date yet on when the VHX for Artists platform will be officially open for all, according to co-founder Casey Pugh, but “it will be soon,” he promised.

In addition to iTunes and VHX, Indie Game will also be distributed through Steam, Valve’s video game distribution platform. That’s right, a gaming platform. According to Swirsky, with the exception of a zombie film created by Valve employees several years ago, Indie Game is the first film to ever receive major release through the popular service.

However, the decision to work with Steam made sense for Swirsky and Pajot, because of the film’s deep connections with the independent gaming community. “From a pure distribution standpoint, we can not get any closer to our core audience that being listed side by side with the games that are featured in the film,” Swirsky said. “If you like and bought Super Meat Boy, Braid, World of Goo, etc, there’s a good chance you might be interested in the backstory behind those games, and games like them. Steam brings us to the core of our most relevant audience in a very unique way. It’s kind of amazing.”

Across platforms, the cost will be $10, though those pre-ordering on Steam can purchase it for $8.99. According to Swirsky, “When it comes to sales and knowing their consumer base, Steam is second to none. They know their stuff. They know how to effective launch, maintain and promote the products within their system. When they suggested debuting with a pre-order pricing incentive, it made a lot of sense to us.”

To Swirsky and Pajot, each platform has its unique advantages. Steam, as previously mentioned, delivers the film to the most passionate portion of its fanbase. With iTunes, he says, it’s “a juggernaut. We always wanted this film to be there. They bring an audience and ease of purchase/viewing that we could only dream of with this film.”

And working with VHX, Swirsky says, “allows us to continue the direct conversation with our audience that we’ve been having since Day 1. It’s all on our site, it’s all under our control, it’s as personal as delivering the final film to the end audience as we can get digitally. VHX is doing some really exciting things. We’re really proud to be a part of it all.”

“It’s truly a great film. It also perfectly aligns with our beliefs on the future of film,” Pugh said. “Crowd-funded on Kickstarter and self-released on VHX. This is where the film, video and television business is going and it’s only the tip of the iceberg.”

Between the three platforms, Swirsky and Pajot are hopeful to not only make up the actual production budget of the film, but also compensate themselves for the two years they spent making the film. “The film is very much on track to make back its budget. But that’s a budget that doesn’t include paying ourselves for the past two years. If we go by that budget, we still have a little ways to go. But it should be worth it,” Swirsky said.

]]>$5 for a DRM-free download: The premise of Aziz Ansari’s new online-exclusive stand-up specialDangerously Delicious may sound familiar. But for the folks behind VHX.tv, it’s not just about copying Louis CK’s success story – it’s about making 2012 the year for crowdfunded online video to succeed. “This could be the year where independent creators could be in the black,” VHX.tv co-founder Jamie Wilkinson told me during a video chat today.

Ansari released his comedy special on his website today, asking fans to pay $5 to instantly stream or download the one-hour show. The offering is powered by VHX, which has until now mostly been focused on social video discovery. Ansari’s special is kicking off VHX’s new artist program, which is meant to help artists to monetize their video assets in a direct-to-fan fashion. So far, things are off to a great start: Wilkinson and his co-founder Casey Pugh told me that they’ve been working non-stop to deal with the heavy demand for the special. “It’s much better than we ever imagined,” said Pugh.

Louis CK pioneered the idea of selling downloads of stand-up specials directly to fans in December, and cutting out gatekeepers like iTunes worked really well for him: CK’s special reportedly brought in more than $1 million within the first 12 days. Making downloads available without any DRM restrictions is key to this kind of approach, believes Wilkinson: “If you treat the consumer like a smart person… people really respond to that.”

Pugh told me that the new artist program is additive to what VHX has been offering in the video discovery space. But there is definitely potential for it to become something bigger: Artists could use eventually use Kickstarter to raise funds for production, and VHX to sell their wares to fans, the duo told me. Of course, others are looking at the space of crowd-funding as well, but they didn’t seem to worried about competition. Said Pugh: “Video is a pretty hard problem to solve.”

]]>VHX.tv is preparing to open up for public beta this Tuesday, offering a new crowd of users the opportunity to test out the video sharing and discovery site.

Co-founded by online video pros Casey Pugh (whose past work includes Boxee, Vimeo and an Emmy) and Jamie Wilkinson (the co-creator of Know Your Meme and Mag.ma), VHX serves a two-fold purpose, offering a social dashboard of videos being shared by other users, as well as the opportunity for users browsing elsewhere to queue up videos for later viewing. The idea, according to Wilkinson told us in a phone interview, is to solve the problem of how people watch and share videos with friends.

VHX addresses the same concept that other startups have approached — that is, the idea that the best way to discover new content is not through an algorithm, but through social interaction. But a number of factors help it stand apart. One is its dramatic design, in which the video takes over the entire browser window for distraction-free viewing, with the dashboard and other features (including the ability to like, queue up and share videos across multiple social platforms), given a low profile. While not all videos are high-res enough to make this rewarding, a short film available in 720p or higher pops nicely.

Another distinction is its current user base, which is largely made up of high-level “power consumers” of online video — which is to say, the hip cool kids who always see hot new virals first. According to Wilkinson, VHX now has 5,000 users in private beta, most of whom are pretty active users of the site and represent many of that elite. Just some of those actively participating include Laughing Squid’s Scott Beale, video remix artists Wreck and Salvage and College Humor co-founder Jakob Lodwick.

“I’ll see it on VHX 24 or 48 hours before anywhere else,” Wilkinson said, describing the typical VHX stream as “a blend of the Boing Boing front page and Failblog front page. Your standard internet fare, with an extra dose of Vimeo.”

But the exact balance of content at this stage depends on which VHX users you follow, though users coming through the public beta will have the ability to pull in videos from their social streams, including Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook. In addition, Wilkinson and Pugh are working on the ability to import big blogs — like, say, Laughing Squid or Boing Boing — as viewable streams. “We’re really excited about adding playlist features and more powerful curation stuff,” Wilkinson said. Currently, VHX only works with YouTube and Vimeo videos; support for other players including Blip.tv, Dailymotion and Livestream is in progress.

Monetization, though, comes from what Wilkinson referred to as the “three As” — apps, ads and accounts (specifically, pro accounts), with an emphasis on offering premium features over advertising. The upcoming iOS app, he says, will likely be a paid offering — in addition, a Boxee app for leanback viewing is also in development.

But even stuck inside the browser, VHX does stand out as a solution to the “I want to see something new” problem, especially when either your personal dashboard or the curated Discover section are allowed to play as a continuous stream. Letting VHX play for twenty minutes on random, for example, exposed me to strange animation, a Sesame Street clip, an A-plus cat video and some dazzling time-lapse cinematography — none of which I’d ever seen before. Which is the very definition of discovery.

]]>Jamie Wilkinson, aka Jamie Dubs, is the go-to guy if you want to learn anything about Internet memes. He’s the brain behind Know Your Meme, and until recently used to be Rocketboom’s Internet Research Scientist, complete with lab coat and white board.

With all that knowledge about videos that gathered millions of views and in some cases went on to become pop culture phenomenons, we thought we’d ask Wilkinson if there’s any formula to virality. What do you need to do to become Internet famous, what should you avoid, and what are the chances that you’re actually going to make any money with this?

Wilkinson told me that viral videos need to be relatable and catchy to go viral, and being or at least looking like Tila Tequila doesn’t really hurt either. However, if something goes wrong, don’t worry: There’s no such thing as bad press. Check out the complete video below.